I am in Santa Barbara, CA we are losing signals on the local station, so I switched to the internet, signal still going in and out.
COX cable said there are sun spots and will last another ten days or so.
Fortunately I have the podcast set up and each hour only takes about 10 seconds to down load, so will listen later without the blips.

7
posted on 10/05/2012 11:48:52 AM PDT
by svcw
(Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)

I don’t know the exact details, but I would guess that the major NYC stations are broadcast direct from antennas on top of the Empire State Building and elsewhere, whereas national talk radio may be broadcast from satellites.

And many of the major stations originate in New York studios, so they don’t have to be transmitted across the country—at least in NY.

I’ve been noticing that the T.V. goes on the “fritz” (telephone cable), sometimes, when the talking head on FOX NEWS says something detrimental towards the President. Usually for just about 10 to 20 seconds. I figure it’s prolly somebody local, some engineer at the local station who’s in love with the President.
Anybody else getting the “fritz” on the Fox network?

18
posted on 10/05/2012 12:11:49 PM PDT
by timestax
(Why not drug tests for the President AND all White Hut staff ? ? ?)

Our local station waits until Rush is about to say something crucial and breaks in with worthless traffic alerts that could wait for the regularly scheduled newscast.
It is so blatantly obvious sometimes I could scream.

26
posted on 10/05/2012 12:35:15 PM PDT
by Wiser now
(Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)

Is your cable television signal fuzzy, internet reception spotty or cell phone service dropping in and out? Don’t blame your service provider over the next few days, blame the sun.
Expected solar flare activity now through next Thursday is expected to interrupt satellite signals to earth and cause signal interference.
Sun outages happen during the spring and fall when solar radiation interferes with satellite signals, said Matthew Templeton of the American Association of Variable Star Observers.

Most radio and television programs are transmitted via satellite to the local stations. At this time of the year, the sun will transit the satellite, which is to say, it the satellite is directly in front of the sun.

The noise from the sun overpowers the signal from the satellite for just a few minutes.

The time of the event depends on the orbital location of the satellite and the location of the receive antenna.

When they say, it is the sun's fault, it is, but not because of sun spots.

It is FM radio (in the Very High Frequency band), TV stations in VHF and UHF that are line of sight based, and need to have their antennas at height, for example, the line of site of a 1,000 foot tower is about 45 miles.

It was weird to me as well, yet about five minutes ago all our local radio stations went off the air, just static.
I know little to nothing about astronomy/astrophysics, so will have to look to your expertise.

31
posted on 10/05/2012 1:24:07 PM PDT
by svcw
(Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)

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